Gaming versus real life. A polite reminder.

posted this on April 8th, 2011.
Categorized as gaming, gaming addiction, lotro, playing too much, rant, Real Life, Rift, social interaction, wow.

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Full link: http://www.containsmoderateperil.com/2011/04/gaming-versus-real-life-polite-reminder.html


Gaming is a perfectly valid and acceptable pastime, despite all the negative stereotypes and bad press that it gets. I have met some good friends through gaming and have often enjoyed online social interactions as much as real world ones. I also think that gaming can be a useful learning experience, especially with with regard to teamwork and group dynamics. However, I do keep the entire matter in perspective and do not buy into some of the more wilder claims that are made. Gaming at the end of the day is a leisure activity and nothing more.

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Why We Need Revamps

posted this on July 12th, 2010.
Categorized as General, opinions, rant.

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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/mHnVmD1zkfY/

One of the things that I enjoyed most about leveling the majority of my alts was that I held off (procrastinated) long enough that I was able to take them through the Lone-lands revamp.  I have to say it was incredibly enjoyable.  The quest hub flowed in an even fashion, and it was only in a couple of instances where I found myself frustrated by a quest (usually related to wargs) or running back to a previous area to complete a quest.  It was really enjoyable and I was sad to leave.

I was even more sad when I got to the North Downs.  Going from the Lone-lands to the North Downs was like getting out of a nice cozy bed and jumping into an ice cold lake; it’s bad and everyone knows it.  In fact, it was scheduled to be revamped shortly after the Lone-lands  by Orion.  But as with all projects and jobs, his assignment changed and he was given other priorities by his “higher-up’s”.  We can now assume that this may be due to the Free-to-play changes that are forthcoming this fall.  Of course this is an assumption and we can’t be sure that this is true.  For all we know he is still working on some top secret project that has yet to be disclosed.  But to any Turbine employees that that might be reading this, I cannot stress to yo9u enough how much we need revamps in certain zones.  Especially the level 30 – 50 zones.

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How to Talk to Developers

posted this on March 15th, 2010.
Categorized as Dev Team, forum, Hobbit Rage, Opinion, rant.

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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/XbqMrrsbQL4/

trollRecently, there was a post on the forums that although atypical for the LOTRO forums (as far as my experience goes) is fairly typical for most gaming forums; especially MMO’s.  How is it typical?  Well, for those of you who do not want to pollute your mind with meaningless drama and crud, I’ll go into a somewhat brief description.

The title is “@Orion” and the message is simply, “How goes the North Down’s revamp.”  For those who don’t know, this was answered in a blog post by Orion in late January, stating that he is no longer working on the North Down’s revamp and has been moved to other projects.  Once informed of the situation by another player, the author responded with the single-word reply  “Fail” .  However, once Orion actually responds to this post,  the post is hijacked by those who begin to discuss how the game is awful, how it’s changing from its original design, how nothing is good anymore, that people are leaving in droves, and basically that everything is poop.  When others fire back that they do not share the same views and that perhaps those complaining should find a different game, some of those complaining use the justification of how they love the game and wouldn’t spend all this time telling everyone how much it sucked if they didn’t.  Bull-poopy.

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What Makes a Raid?

posted this on October 21st, 2009.
Categorized as adventure, Hobbit Rage, raids, rant, turbine, twitter.

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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/VSOmypLV7j4/

BalrogWhat makes a raid, a raid?  Is it the amount of people required to kill the end boss or to make substantial progress?  Is it the feeling of walking into a dungeon and feeling that you have indeed entered an “epic” area of the land?  Meghan Rodberg, Senior Community Manager of Turbine, decided to take a discussion that Turbine’s Community Team was having on October 20th to Twitter and ask those people who are following her on the service the following:

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